Rylan Jacobs
by Komoyodo
Summary: ODST Rylan Jacobs, Lance Corporal of Ulysses squadron aboard the Odyssey is one of the first soldiers to face off against the might of the Covenant.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

I was never one to enjoy cryosleep. That said, no one is really a fan of it to begin with, but I especially hate it. One in fifty thousand soldiers in the UNSC have a condition called glacicutem proventum, and of course, I had to be one of them. You get post-sleep blisters that are awfully painful, and you always come out of cryo thinking you're floating, which throws off your center of gravity for a few hours.

The code yellow siren was blaring through the cryo-chambers, and everyone in Ulysses squad was putting on their orbital gear.

"All squadrons to your stations, code yellow, protocol C-foxtrot, this is a code yellow, and this is not a drill. All squadrons…"

I had the mech-assist drill in my gauntlets, shin guards, and helmet, and after retrieving my standard issue 3R assault rifle from the Ulysses gun locker, I headed into the chaotic corridor, packed with teams of sprinting engineers and response squadrons who were all shouting at one another over the siren. A few marines passed by me and saluted, and I returned the salute out of respect, trying my best to keep myself upright. When Ulysses squadron, (a troop of 15 new ODST members), filed in behind me, I gave the signal to start moving. In unison, Ulysses moved through the scrambling crew, who all parted at our passing.

Static passed through my helmet's speaker for a fraction of a second, followed by a female voice: "Bridge COM to Ulysses leader, come in."

"This is Ulysses leader, over,"

"Report to the bridge entry way, you will be in charge of defending the bridge and it's crew, do you copy?"

"Permission to speak ma'am."

"Granted."

"What exactly are we defending you from?"

"Unknown hostiles. That will be all, bridge COM out."

Static again for a second, and the transmission ended. Unknown hostiles? If it wasn't the insurrectionists… Who could it possibly be? We ran through the evac hangar and crossed the platform that lead to the bridge door. Outside the door a response team was already placing barricades and mounting turrets, bringing in enough ammo and weapons for a weeklong firefight.

I roughly pulled aside one of the engineers and turned off the tint on my visor so I could look him in the eye. "Why are we so heavily armed? Who are we expecting? Do you know? Answer me!"

The young engineer was sputtering when the bridge door opened, parting the way for a tall man dressed in armored Navy attire.

"Ease up on the kid Jacobs, or you'll be demoted again." The tall man winked at me, and I half smiled, apologizing to the boy I harassed. I walked over to the man, Colonel Delrio, my supervisor all the way back from my years at Reach Military Academy.

"Look son, we're in a tight spot at the moment, our knowledge is minimal, and that boy dealing with a bigger boy like you is the least of his problems. If you want to know what I know, or what we all know, look out that way-" Delrio pointed in the direction of a viewing 'glass' behind me, and I turned to look. I finally understood. A sleek, purple ship in the shape of an elongated beetle was sitting out in space a few kilometers away.

"We have no idea where it came from, but it hasn't responded to any of our sentient contact protocols, and it definitely hasn't tried transmitting to us. It's like an old western shoot out of sorts I tell you.."

"What's a western shoot out?"

Delrio looked at me and smiled. When he opened his mouth to answer, the ship shook so violently that we both collapsed to the ground.

"Code red, this is not a drill, code red, all units to battle stations, follow the code red protocol, this is not a drill, code red."

"Damn! We were hit by something big- and by the sounds of it we took hull damage. Rylan, I have to get back into the bridge. Keep us protected as long as you can, do you understand?"

It was my turn to stutter, as I couldn't quite come to grips to what was happening, not to mention my continuing dizziness from cryo was affecting my thought processing.

"If we get out of this, we're watching Star in the Dust, you hear?" Delrio smiled one last time, and he briskly walked back through the door he came out. I saw the tumultuous bridge for a fraction of a second, and the door closed. I noticed my squadron, Loche, Elnor, Perim, Eury, Tanada, Polma, and all the others looking at me apprehensively, all of their visors untinted, and all of their eyes wide with apprehension.

"Sir," one of the privates beckoned at me, and I nodded so he could speak, "orders?"

"Protect the bridge at all costs." I looked at each of them in turn in the eye, and turned on my visor's tint. Showing my fear may compromise their ability to perform properly, so I turned away to busy myself with setting up the defense; the others followed suit.

As I unpacked cases of ammo, I noticed my arm trembling violently, so I pulled out my pocket watch. I looked at the picture inside, and I closed my eyes, gripping the watch tightly. Putting the watch back into my tactical pouch, I got back to work. The others had started assessing weapons and were running armor diagnostics, and I allowed myself to smile. I had a very reliable team behind me, and that's all I needed right now.

The ship shook again, this time much more violently, and in the distance was the sound of screaming.

Loche said, "What the hell was that?" when yet another violent shake coursed through the Odyssey.

Once again the intercom sprang to life: "We've been boarded by the unknown hostiles, fire at will on sight, they are not here to negotiate."

In unison my team switched off the safeties of their weapons, and took position at their designated perimeters. Behind us was the bridge we were told to defend, and in front of us was a narrow corridor that lead to a door a quarter of a meter thick, made entirely of titanium steel. I was confident in it's strength, but an advanced race of beings may know a way to hack into the ship's computing network. _I could override the door to lockdown, so the network has no access to it._

I gestured toward the closest ODST, "Loche, take point, I'm going to override the security access to the door so the hostiles can't hack into it." Loche nodded, and he stepped in front of me. I put my hand on his left shoulder and followed him step by step, my rifle over his right shoulder.

The Odyssey was now firing all of it's weaponry from the sounds of it, archer missile pods, 100mm rounds, and even the deafening MAC cannon, which could cut through any human vessel with one shell. Any human vessel. I glanced sideways through the glass, and saw the beetle like ship intact, without a trace of destruction. Loche stopped, and I nearly ran into him, but I stopped myself short. We were at the door, and the control panel was in front of Loche. I gestured for him to move to the middle of the corridor as I crept up to the control panel. I started to punch in the override code when suddenly, a very loud and very close sounding scream and thud came from behind the door. Strange sounds, squeaks and growls, came from the other side of the door, along with monstrous footsteps that made the ground under me tremble.

There was muffled jabber amongst the hostiles on the other side, and I realized quickly that I had stopped inputting the override code. I finished the code and backed away quickly, signaling Loche to come with me. We backed away facing the door, from which noise was still coming through- indecipherable chatter that had a very aggressive tone to it. I jumped when the door rang, a loud metallic crash that resonated through my bones; a short burst of metal on metal. I stopped in my tracks, and saw the door had been dented in. Loche and I backed away swiftly, rejoining the rest of the group who were all frozen in terror.

Another blow struck the door, and the door gave in a little more.

"Lance Corporal, that door is supposed to hold two thousand pounds of force isn't it?"

I heaved a sigh, "That door is supposed to be able stop a 90mm rocket. Dozens actually. And firing those in the proximity is suicide…"

The door was struck by the same metallic sound for a third time, and the crack down the middle of the door now showed a sliver of the other side- and the beings on the other side.

"Ulysses squadron, you are the 43rd Orbital Drop Shock Trooper unit, graduates of Reach Military Academy from Harvest System, and are soldiers of the United Nations Space Command. You are the top one percent of the top one percent" Another crash, "We are here to foxtrot any enemy between man and victory," _BOOM_ the giant metal door split at its center and cracked open at last, "WE ARE HELL JUMPERS!"

"OORAH!" chanted my team, and they opened fire.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

All around me rifles were being emptied, and bullet shells were flying around like a blizzard. We however were not the only ones shooting to kill, the enemy soldiers that came through the now broken door were firing what looked like liquid electricity at us. It was hard to see through the blinding flashes of light at first, but after a while, I could make out the shapes of the hostiles. There were a few creatures the size of a smaller human, but oddly rounded and disproportionate. These were the ones making squeaking sounds, and were the front line soldiers of this new foe. The creature I had my eye on within a fraction of a second was the one I was hoping did not exist; not after seeing for myself the giant metal door being pummeled down by brute strength. The creature that did this was the only one of his kind standing in the passage, yet was the tallest and most menacing thing I had ever seen. Standing no shorter than eight feet, the creature moved quickly side-to-side, avoiding our fire with ease and blasting us with blue plasma-like material that vaporized everything it touched. The creature's jaw was split in four and aligned with rows of teeth, and the eyes behind its armored helmet was that which resembled a lizard's. The rest of his body was heavily armored with an unfamiliar metal, but it looked very similar to the hostile ship's hull. A yell of pain to the left indicated a hurt member of my squad, and the yell was followed immediately by the smell of burning flesh.

"Lance Corporal! Elnor was hit in the chest, her blasting armor is completely melted through and it reached her skin- she's bleeding and unconscious"

"Seal her up with biofoam, hopefully it stops the bleeding. Drag her behind the second barricade and have Tanada take point- Loche! Take the sniper and start putting rounds in the big freak! It's their leader by the looks of it. Everyone suppressive fire! I want three rifles always firing at them do you understand?"

"OORAH!"

The squawks and growls of the alien hostiles grew more panicked, as the fire increased in persistency. Suppressive fire was a military tactic that increased efficiency in a firefight scenario- it made it possible to have a weapon always firing at the enemy without cease, due to rotations in loading. It was a tactic I learned at Reach Military Academy during a history lesson about the United States Revolutionary War.

I aimed down my rifle's scope and two careful aim; I shot thrice into one of the smaller beings' heads, and blue matter squirted outward, followed by the creature collapsing onto the floor.

"Got one boys! These things ain't invincible, give 'em hell!"

A continuous exchange of orange and blue light shown through the passage, but it seemed at last, that the orange light was overcoming the blue; we were killing them off, one by one.

"Grenades out- finish them off!" I shouted.

Four fragmentation grenades were lobbed over the barricades toward the remaining enemy, which included the big one, and because none of them responded, I knew we had won.

"DUCK AND COVER!"

A giant explosion followed my order, and the remaining alien rabble screamed in their squeaky dialects. I hopped back up with my eye down the scope, scanning the room for any more hostiles.

"All hostiles neutralized," Loche said from behind me, eye still glued to the scope of the sniper I assigned him, "Wait where's the-"

A giant white sword made of hot light sprung from midair, and cut through the barrier in front of me. As I leapt backwards, I felt the inside of my helmet get really hot, due to whatever energy was emitting from the sword.

"What the hell is holding it?" I heard Polma exclaim. I saw a shimmering behind the sword, like a distorted picture painted in the air.

"The big one didn't die! It's invisible! Take it down now!"

Fire came from all directions as everyone concentrated fire on the shimmering area behind the sword, from which came a loud roar akin to a war cry. The sword charged at me, but the pace of the heavily armored brute did not slow. Instead, the bullets seemed to simply bounce off its armor, and it was just getting angrier. The sword cut down at me, and I rolled to the side just in time to dodge the slice. I looked up to see the brute dislodge the sword from the floor, no longer invisible. However, the bullets that were hitting it made a different kind of shimmering, a sort of electrical surge around the beast's protection.

"ODST, this thing must have some sort of shield around its armor, making for a second layer of protection- if we can take the shield down, we'll be able to kill it."

I was expecting the continuous fire to simply resume, but instead, three or four mini-EMP blasts were shot at the brute, and the shimmering died. I took the chance of its momentary stun to charge at it, rip out my knife from my tactical belt, and jammed it up its throat. Clawing at the knife, the monstrosity keeled backwards and twitched for a second, then laid still.

"EMP blasts seemed like an obvious answer from the get-go sir. I hope you didn't mind."

"Not at all Private… You all did fantastically."

I was ordering maintenance when suddenly, the entire ship shook for a fourth time, this time, the most violent of all- there was also an earsplitting screech of ripping metal, and a distant echo of explosions. The bridge door opened not a moment later, and Delrio, sweaty and shell shocked, looked at all of us in turn.

"The ship… It was split in half, and we're sitting ducks now…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"All weapons systems have turned offline, and by the sounds of it, ninety percent of the personnel are dead, or dying. We're evacuating the bridge crew now so we can-"

 _VOOM!_ I saw a giant red-hot laser come shooting out of the alien craft towards us, and I thought I was about to die. The laser, however, hit the bridge behind Delrio and the great light nearly blinded me, while the noise of the burning destruction reverberated through my ears. Delrio crashed to the floor unconscious, having been hit by debris. A wall quickly sealed out the vacuum of space that the laser exposed us to, but not before one of my ODST was sucked out into the deathly grip of space. I had no time to grief however; I reached down and grabbed Delrio under the arm, and gestured to Loche to help me. Ears still ringing, and my vision still blurred, I tried my best to give the order to move towards the direction of the hangar, which housed the Pelican drop ships.

After shaking off some of the ring in my ears, I comm'ed in the Odyssey's AI system, "Computer, where is the nearest planet fit for survival?"

"Right under The Odyssey, it is a class C habitable planet; removal of oxygen converter masks not advised, the planetary atmosphere is very high in methane concentration."

After waking up from cryosleep, I hadn't once thought we might be above a source of matter- let alone a planet; this was sheer dumb luck, and I was thankful to whatever or whoever was watching over me.

"Computer, how many operational Pelicans are left in the hangar?"

"The hangar is no longer functional, it is sealed due to excessive vacuum and free floating debris- zero operational pelicans in the vicinity." I stopped in my tracks abruptly, and repeated my question, "Computer, are there any operational Pelicans on the Odyssey?"

"There are no operational Pelicans aboard the Odyssey."

The silence spread through my company like a plague; the dread we all felt mounted, and I apprehensively asked the next question: "Computer… Are there any operational vehicles that can get us to the surface of the planet?"

"ODST drop pods are still primed and ready to launch- fifty three are offline, thirty seven are online."

I looked behind me at my team, who all nodded in an almost forced agreement. They were all technically ODST, but none of them had ever actually made the jump before. Even I had only done it once before, and that seemed like enough jumps to me, but I was willing to go forward with this to save my life, and my team's life.

I changed our direction to the right, leading us to what may possibly be our doom. On our way to the pods we encountered a few of the smaller hostiles, which we quickly put down, and continued to make our way to the chamber. Arm still tightly around Delrio, who was stirring slightly, I moved forward a little more quickly so as not to prolong our inevitable fate. Drop pods were dangerous, and have a 20% fail rate. Only four of five ODST soldiers land after passing through the atmosphere on average, and after landing, encountering any enemy of the UNSC is a whole new scenario, with risks being presented at every turn. One or two members of my squadron are not going to make it down to the unknown planet, and they know it. Unfortunately, it's the only option we have.

The drop pod chamber was already open, and some of the pods were missing, suggesting that some of the other ODST on board the Odyssey also jumped to the planet below.

"Ulysses squad, whatever happens, don't scream, because it'll be the last thing we hear before you splat." My team laughed briefly, but were all probably frightened, just like I am. I let Loche slip away from under Delrio, as Delrio now seemed to be coming to, as he was automatically moving his legs in a slow walking motion.

"Rylan… The bridge… You have to def… We need to…" Sinking in and out of semi consciousness, Delrio blathered on, while I opened my pod. It had room for me, and another person, but the second seat was an emergency seat that was highly advised against in its use. The whiplash from the ground impact alone can kill anyone not buckled in properly. I busied myself with Delrio first, and when I lowered the helmet onto his head, he looked at me with glossy eyes, but spoke to me in soft determination.

"Rylan… Everything was destroyed… We didn't know how to react… Their technology, their firepower… So much for that old western movie ey?" He closed his eyes, and laid his head back as far as he could, "We tried to take it on but… Nothing we did could break through its armor. It's nothing like we've ever seen before."

"I might have a theory, but I'll save it for when we hit the ground, yeah?" I buckled in the rest of Delrio's torso to finish, and I closed the pod to start procedural protocol.

Opening up a channel, I comm'ed to Ulysses squad; "This is Lance Corporal Rylan Jacobs of the 43rd ODST squadron comming to the rest of Ulysses squadron, do you read, start roll call."

"Alpha one checking in."

"Alpha two checking in."

"Bravo one checking in."

Nine others roll called, and then there was silence. I realized that two of my team was missing form roll call, and then realized with a pang that they had both been KIA. Biting back my emotions, I continued protocol; "Now begin pod assessment, and make sure the primary propellers are operational- finish by locking in."

"Alpha one locked in."

"Alpha two locked in."

"Bravo one locked in."

After the rest had finished, everyone was set and ready. All I had to do now was sentence Ulysses to hell.

"Computer, how long is our jump to the planet's surface?"

"Ulysses squadron's jump will be approximately forty point three miles from your starting position. Maximize safety by making sure the propellers are operational, and the side thrusters are fueled up."

I nervously bobbed my leg while I waited for my pod's diagnostics report, and once I was clear, I stopped all movement. I felt frozen in time, as I moved my mouth, and said the longest sentence of my life.

"Computer, commence drop."

"Acknowledged."

The siren that signaled the pod dropping commencement started to blare outside in the chamber, and I opened up the security camera on my dashboard to watch for any possible intruders.

"Dropping in ten, nine, eight, seven…"

I saw movement outside the chamber door.

"six, five, four.."

One of the big brutes came bursting in through the door, seemingly laughing as he drew his white sword, and charged at one of the pods.

"three, two…"

A scream from the next pod over resonated through the chamber, and I closed my eyes.

"One."

 _KSHHH!_ The pods detached from the main frame of the chamber as the vacuum doors opened underneath us.

"ODST!" I felt my pod fall with a sudden _whoosh,_ "See you in hell."


End file.
